Presiding Bishop-Elect

 The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop-Elect

“Now I’ve got one word for you,” the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry of North Carolina, Presiding Bishop-Elect, told the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church in his sermon on July 3. “If you don’t remember anything else I say this morning, it’s the first word in the Great Commission: GO!”



Read more of his sermon or watch the video below at the link.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/78th-general-convention-episcopal-church-july-3-sermon-rt-rev-michael-curry

Morning Prayer

Join us for Morning Prayer Monday-Thursday at 8:15AM. Come start your day with a peaceful 20 minute service including chant, scripture, and prayer.

Not a morning person? No problem! Join our rector the Reverend Sylvia Miller-Mutia in praying a slightly abbreviated (10 minute) form of the service online-- anywhere, anytime during the week!

Just click on this youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQOfL3wh04

Together and In the loop!

The Diocese of the Rio Grande would like all of us to be in the loop. You can subscribe to In The Loop to learn what is occurring in the Diocese and get news concerning the National Church and The Anglican Communion.  Email intheloop@dioceserg.org to subscribe. 

Also additionally the Diocese  urges everyone to subscribe to the Diocesan paper Together.  The digital version of Together is linked In the Loop after publication and may be downloaded from the Diocesan website in that manner.   For copies to be sent to you at your mailing address email together@dioceserg.org

You can use these same two email addresses to submit articles for publication.

HUGE Rummage Sale!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Summertime is a time for treats and fun, especially the frozen and icy cool treats.   This Sunday while the normal teachers of church school have the summer off the church school kids have a great opportunity for some delicious fun (and learning!).  We have a guest teacher, a regular parishioner, coming in to make some ice cream with all of the Sunday School children.  Of course all of this fun has a little bit more content intended than just cool treats for the kids, to help them learn more about the transformation.  It is happening this Sunday so hope to see everyone there!

A Comment from the Sr. Warden

            

Our guide through the discernment process, Fr. Tim Sexton, has suggested that it will be helpful to give the congregation a touch of what the Appreciative Inquiry is like, so I'd like to share what I said when the vestry did its introduction to the process.

            

The question we were asked to consider, with a partner, was a time or event which had been meaningful to us as individuals at St. Thomas. Since the big ceremonies of my life (marriage, babies' baptisms) were mostly at my home church in Tucson, I was surprised to find that two big events for me were memorials, those of Bill White and Martin Fuller. At Martin's service, I read the New Testament lesson from Romans 8; it is  the familiar:

I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, or depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As in last Sunday's lesson, St. Paul can make a great list, and this is a stupendous list, covering so much of the human condition. But I was teaching Advanced Placement English Language at the time, and we were learning about rhetorical devices. I wondered, in my Trivial Pursuit mind, how this sounded in Greek. So after the service, I asked Warren Smith to help me find out. He too identified this device as "polysyndeton," just meaning repetition of conjunctions. But he found a copy in Greek to show me, and I stored the knowledge for future use. I ended up copying and pasting the two versions, Greek and English, side by side and showing them to my students. It was a fun lesson for them, which helped etch the principle in their memories; I used it a number of times. It always brought back the loving kindness of the St. Thomas family, the warmth of our good-byes, the power of ceremony, and the comfort of a place where there are no stupid questions! The passage also reminded me of why we read lessons over and over and they always seem fresh. This refreshed and refreshing memory is at least part of what is achieved with Appreciative Inquiry.

-E.C. Senior Warden

St. Thomas of Canterbury

I just realize that I'm coming up to my 30 years of being part of the St. Thomas of Canterbury family.  I've seen all the kids grow up to have their own kids.  And I have been for 3 different Rectors.  That's a pretty long time and it has been hard staying connected but I persevere.

Thank you for being Family

Joe Lane